The sacrifice and death of father Maximilian Kolbe

The transcript of the podcast

At the end of July 1941, the camp commander Lagerführer Karl Fritzsch selected ten hostages from among the prisoners of block 14 in retaliation for the escape of a prisoner. He condemned them to death by starvation in the bunker of block 11. During the selection, a Polish prisoner who was a Franciscan monk and missionary, Maximilian Kolbe, camp number 16670, stepped out and asked the camp commander to take him instead of a desperate selected prisoner, Franciszek Gajowniczek, camp number 5659. After a brief dispute with Father Kolbe, Fritzsch agreed to the substitution. Especially when he found out that Kolbe is a Catholic priest. The ten selected prisoners were led off to the bunker of block 11. Franciszek Gajowniczek survived the war and passed away in 1995. Maximilian Kolbe was murdered with a poisonous injection on August 14th, 1941. He was canonized by the Pope John Paul II in October 1982. Teresa Wątor-Cichy from the Auschwitz Memorial research centre talks about Father Maximilian Kolbe.

What were the circumstances of the arrest of Father Maximilian Kolbe in 1941 before his deportation to Auschwitz?

Father Kolbe, together with another four friars, was arrested on 17th February 1941, and that was the second arrest. The very first was in the first weeks of the war, 19th September 1939, when over 40 friars were arrested. They were taken for isolation, they were kept in three places, together with civilians and with Polish prisoners of war. The first place was in Lamsdorf, Łambinowice. The second place was Amtitz, and the last place was in Schildberg. On the 8th of December the same year, 1939, they were allowed to leave this isolation. So they returned to Niepokalanów, to their monastery and they started work but in a little bit of a different style. They became more opened for the local population, for the neighbourhood, so the workshops they were having on the side of the monastery, like some mechanics, some milk production, and some repair of bicycles. They were available for the people from the villages around, and some time later they were told to prepare a shelter for the Poles who were to be resettled from the part which was incorporated into Nazi Germany. They were to be moved from territory occupied by Germans, 2000 people, men, women, and children, were sent to the monastery. Together with this group, another group 1050 Jewish people from the same region who were to be kept in the monastery for some period of time.

Then they left and the monastery was also trying to continue their publishing work and one addition of the magazine they could release in 1941. In the meantime, Father Kolbe, who was responsible for the monastery also for the friars, for the seminary as well, was informed by different people that some reports are being sent to the Gestapo in Warsaw, which are were unfriendly for the friars, blaming them for different actions and that they should expect some visitors and maybe even being called for interrogation. They basically became more and more frequent. So, when on the 17th of February 1941 the Gestapo came again to Niepokalanów, they were not fully surprised, especially that only five of the friers were arrested. The guardian, the responsible person father Kolbe, father Bartosik, father Bajewski, Nazim and Cieślik. They were all taken to Warsaw, to Pawiak Prison, for interrogation. The four mentioned, they were sent to Auschwitz on the 8th of April 1941. Father Kolbe was kept in the prison a little bit longer, until the 27th of May 1941.

Could you tell us about the deportation and these early moments in the camp, the registration process and the beginning of his incarceration in Auschwitz?

The transport sent to Auschwitz from Warsaw included 304 men. Most of them, they were Polish, some of them were members of the resistance movement, for example one of them, Jakub Szegidewicz, he was the messenger for the government in London in exile. There was also Stanisław Dubois, the leader of the Socialist Party, who was in Auschwitz before, but was sent to Warsaw for additional interrogation and then in this group was sent back to Auschwitz. There was also Adam Jastrzębski, who was the commander of the companion, which is accompanying the President. In this transport there were also other clergy, all together twelve of them, and eight were from the Pallottines order, located in Ołtarzew. Among them was Professor Franciszek Kilian, professor of biblical studies, there was also Józef Jankowski, who was beatified. He died in Auschwitz. All this group was brought to Auschwitz, and they were to walk from the railway station to the camp. At the main gate they heard the famous speech, the words, “You came here to a German concentration camp, if you don’t like it, you may go on the wire. If there are some Jews among you, you may stay here 2 weeks, priests a month, the others two months”. Then they were taken for registration.

The transport was sent from Warsaw on the 27th of May, in the evening. It took the train to reach Oświęcim actually the whole day, so the next day in the evening they were already in the camp, but the registration started on the 29th, so on the surviving documentation we may see the date 29th of May. They were given the numbers, Father Kolbe received the number 16670. That that time the prisoners were not tattooed, they were to remember the numbers, they were taken for photography, unfortunately the photographs of the prisoners from this transport did not survive. And they were taken for quarantine in the camp, so the isolation, which was in this time not very long, because the prisoners were desperately needed for work, for building, for construction, for transportation and this is also what happened to this group. The very first work father Kolbe was sent in the camp was to transport building materials for the wall, which was built by the crematorium, which was here in Auschwitz 1.

A few days later, during the roll call, they heard words by one of the SS men, “Alle Pfaffen raus”, “All the clergy forward”. They were taken to another unit, which was called Babitz Kommando, so a group of prisoners who worked in the village neighbouring that town and in this village, they were to build a fence around the field, which was to be another place for the farm, which belonged to the camp administration. Just in this place, Father Kolbe stayed for several days, until he was beaten. He was badly beaten by Kapo Hans Krot. This event was described by Tadeusz Pietrzykowski, who was also sent for some duties in this area. Tadeusz Pietrzykowski was deported to Auschwitz in the very first transport, his camp number was 77. He was from Warsaw and before the war he was a boxer. He was a well-known champion in his category, with a great athletic and sport preparation. And somehow in the camp, the administration allowed people who were tied to professional sport to start different events and boxing was one of the disciplines which was in favour. Boxing at that time was a very popular discipline and was also liked by many functionary prisoners because they were those who initiated these fights. And this is why Tadeusz Pietrzykowski was known in the camp as the boxer, and as the boxer who is winning.

When he was in Babice, in this place where the prisoners were working, he noticed the scene where one the functionary prisoners was hitting in a very brutal way another prisoner, wearing glasses. This scene moved him, so he approached the functionary and said “Ok, you are into fighting, so maybe we can train a little bit”. The functionary knew Pietrzykowski, the SS guards allowed them to fight a little bit for fun during the break. The fight started so they exchanged a few punches and Pietrzykowski was wining, was leading in this fight. Suddenly he felt that someone is grabbing his hand, he looked and he noticed the prisoner who was beaten before and he was saying to him, “Son, do not fight, do not hit”. He was in the mood of fighting, so he ignored this man and continued to do what he was doing, which was punch, right and left. Another exchanged happened and again he felt that someone is grabbing his hand and it’s the same prisoner, asking him, “Son, do not fight”. This time Pietrzykowski stopped and told this man, “Is it better that they will punch you, is this what you want?”. He was a little bit angry with the prisoner. The break was over, there was a whistle, so they have to return to work, and they returned to the camp.

The prisoner who was beaten was Father Kolbe. His condition was very bad, so he was brought by the other prisoners and actually he was unable to work, so in the following days he was trying to be accepted into the hospital, which was not that easy, but eventually he was admitted to the hospital. His stay lasted for several weeks. Within this time, he was taken for a few x-rays. We know that he was suffering from tuberculosis, he contracted this terrible disease in Italy, Rome during his studies, and then after he returned to Poland, because of his condition, collapsing condition, he was sent for few spas, mainly to Zakopane for the recovery. But that was a constant trouble in his life. He was even, as the biographies are saying, a person with one lung. This is why his breathing and the fact that he was contracting infections so frequently was very clear, because of this disease. Each x-ray here in the camp was about the lungs and only on one we do have information what happened, and it is written that he had a bad lung infection.

You mentioned two things, you mentioned the speech that welcomed the prisoners, and the functionary said the priests can only stay here for two weeks. And then you mentioned the scene the clergy were moved to another Kommando as a group. Were clergy treated differently in the camp, what was the approach of the SS administration in this early stage of the camp’s functioning towards priests, towards the clergy man?

The three groups mentioned in the speech, the Jews, the clergy, and the other prisoners, they were heard by the prisoners, but of course at the beginning it was not clear if this kind of separation is to be done. But later on, they realised that actually it’s not an incident that this kind of segregation was made. The very first penal company, so the unit which was sent for the worst work, was established here in Auschwitz in autumn 1940, so the first months of the camp’s existence. The prisoners heard, “Alle Juden and Pfaffen raus,” so “All the Jews and the priests and the clergy out,” and just this group made the very beginning of the penal company. Then also other prisoners were sent to the penal company for different as it was called “crimes” or just not following the camp regulation. They were sent for very hard work, their supervisors were very cruel, as well known Krankenmann.

At the beginning during the registration when they were told about the profession and they were saying that they were clergy, they could expect that they are to be sent for very bad work and very bad treatment. Also, different types of mockery by the SS guards was very frequent, as the priests were to say some prayers in a very humiliating way, like standing on the barrels with the excrement. There were some attempts to take the priests form the concentration camp, as Auschwitz was not the only camp where the clergy were sent, they were also in the camps in Germany. In December 1940 the Vatican diplomats managed to get some compromise with the Third Reich to send all the priests to Dachau, which was to be kind of concentration place for the clergy from all the camps. So from Auschwitz three transports were sent, the first in December 1940, the second in May 1941 and the last in June 1942. But it doesn’t mean there were no priests or clergy, monks, friars in the camp at all, they were still deported, and the transports were only gathering those who were in this particular time in the camps. Their treatment was always very bad, very brutal.

Did father Kolbe manage to recover in the infirmary after he had been beaten by the Kapo?

Staying in the camp’s hospital helped Father Kolbe, his condition improved, however he was still having fevers, so this is why he was not sent for work. At the end of July 1941, there was a commission in the camp, a commission of German doctors. The leader of this commission was Horst Schumann, he was the chief of the Euthanasia Centre in Germany, in Sonnenstein. Officially the prisoners were told that this commission is to select the sick, weak prisoners, not expected for fast recovery and they are to be sent to Germany for recovery. Before this, many of the prisoners were taken for x-rays. Probably that was one element of the material the commission was trying to gather. And the prisoners who were in the hospital, they were functionaries, they were cleaning, there was also a nurse, they had some suspicions that there is something wrong going on, this commission is very strange, their aims are not really clear. This is why some prisoners were released from the hospital, they were not fully healthy and ready for work, but the intention was to protect them. That was mentioned in many testimonies of the survivors, that especially Polish intellectuals, leaders, people known, people respected, as long as the other Polish prisoners could protect them from the brutality, from the camp life, they were being placed in the units which were for example under the roof, like the kitchen, the storages, where the chances to survive were a little bit higher than in the other places and the same happened in this situation. Knowing that this German medical commission is kind of surprising the camp, Father Kolbe was released from the hospital, and he was sent to work in the kitchen, peeling the vegetables, also repairing the uniforms.

This is how he started to be in block number 13, at that time, now it’s block number 19. Where one day, a prisoner was missing, the number was not correct. At that time in the camp, they were practising collective responsibility. It means that if one prisoner was trying to escape from the same work unit or from the same building, another 10 randomly chosen prisoners were to die. And for three occasions before, that was the starvation cell, “Hunger Zelle.” The idea was that the prisoners were locked in the cell for at least two weeks, not provided food, water and within this time they were supposed to die. This is also what happened after the prisoner from this block escaped. The hunting lasted for a few days, and finally all the prisoners were to be present outside, and the camp leader Karl Fritzsch started then a selection. Ten prisoners were pointed to and one of them facing death, started to cry, started to ask for life, saying that he is a father, he has a family, children, he wants to be back home, and this cry was heard by the other prisoners. Suddenly, from the group, which was not chosen prisoners, another stood forward and asked the SS soldiers to exchange with the prisoner who is crying for life. And to the great surprise of all the prisoners present in this situation, he was allowed to exchange with the one who was chosen. So, Father Kolbe, he was the one who gave his life, joined the nine prisoners and they were all taken to block number 11. At that time, the block was having a different number, number 13. They stayed in this cell for two weeks. Within this time, the cell was checked frequently and the corpses of those who died were transported to the crematorium. Then finally on the 14th of August they declared the so called, “clearing the bunker”, so to empty all the cells and check this starvation cell. They went down and they realised that a few of the prisoners are still alive, they were not conscious, but they could feel a pulse. So, they called the functionary prisoner from camp’s hospital with the lethal phenol injection, and this is how they were killed. Among those prisoners was also Father Kolbe so he died in this cell as a result of the injection.

The reaction of the SS as you mentioned was surprising, that they allowed this exchange. One prisoner volunteered to go instead another one. What was the behaviour of the SS during this particular roll call, do we have any documents, testimonies about what was happening?

The commandant Rudolf Höß was not present in the camp, he was on a duty trip. Actually, in the situation when the number of the prisoners was not correct, the camp leader Karl Fritzsch, he could wait with the decision, to have for the commandant who was the one responsible for the camp. But there was kind of a competition among the SS and most probably that’s why probably Karl Fritsch wanted to show his power in the camp. This is why they didn’t wait too long for the results, for the answers, for any information if, in the towns around the Gestapo found someone who was trying to escape. They were in a kind of rush, and during the selection the two SS Karl Fritzsch and Rapportführer, so the SS men responsible for the number that was Gerhard Palitzsch, they behave in a very official way, just pointing to the prisoners very quickly. When a situation happened that someone is walking in front, someone is trying to kind of contradict with their decision, actually the reaction again could be different.

Some of the survivors are saying that doing so, Father Kolbe could face execution in this very place, because what he did was kind of breaking the regulation. It was a certain rhythm, certain form of this selection, and everybody who was pointed to was to accept this decision. So, to go in front and also fact that he was directing a few words to the SS was not really in the camp regulation. Officially, he should first address the words to the functionary prisoner, and then the functionary prisoner should contact the SS. He broke this line, he was talking directly to the SS. So, that was another thing which really surprised the prisoners, who were present at this roll call. We may notice that the whole circumstances, even among the SS was a little bit in a rush, they wanted to do things faster, but it was because of their own ambition, because of their own position in the camp and basically showing the power over the prisoners.

We know some details of the event, we have the names of the three men involved, Father Kolbe, Franciszek Gajowniczek, who asked for mercy and who was released from the starvation execution, back to the camp and Karl Fritzsch, the camp manger. But there are still many unknown, wo do not exactly know who in fact escaped and was the reason of the SS retaliation.

There is much information about this event, mainly from the testimonies of the survivors, but a lot of documentation is missing. Well, it doesn’t mean that it was not written down, most probably it was in several files, but the camp documentation is destroyed in such numbers, 95% almost is destroyed, so this is why we do have in fact very little. In this event there are really loads of question marks. The first is who was trying to escape? Some researchers who were approaching this story were trying to match the surviving information, some of the dates which were around this event to give a name, but we have to say that its not 100% information, it’s still a suspicion. We have two admit that we don’t really know who was the one who was trying to escape. Then the date, of this roll call. We know that it was the end of the month, but again it’s not clear information which day it was done. Then another thing are the names of the nine prisoners who were chosen this day. There is a documentation which is called the Bunker List, book which is holding all the names of the prisoners who were sent for the cells in the basement of block number 11, but somehow their names were not written down in this book. Most probably it’s the result of the rush, that just these several question marks. The date which we have is coming from the death certificate, which was issued in the administration here, with the date of death. We may read that Father Kolbe died on the 14th of August 1941. Having this date, and the testimonies that they were staying around two weeks in the basement, more or less the date is being given. But again, its better to say that was at the end of the month, because we don’t have any other information to prove that it was exactly this particular time.

Father Maximilian Kolbe was incarcerated in Auschwitz for eleven weeks. Are there any testimonies about his life in the camp? You mentioned the one event with Tadeusz Pietrzykowski and this incident in the Babitz Kommando, where there any more memorable moments that survivors remembered him despite the very short stay in the camp?

In the collection of testimonies, we find quite a few descriptions of these meetings with Father Kolbe. Some of them were coming from religious motivations. For example, Władysław Lewkowicz, brought to the camp in autumn 1940, a student from Warsaw, was in a very bad mental state because of the brutality in the camp. He was looking for support, he was looking for an occasion for conversation. He was looking for confession in fact. One day, a fellow prisoner suggested to him that there is a monk here, and he’s talking to different people, so maybe he will have an occasion to talk to him. And of course, secretly in the evening, in the break before the evening meal, and the final bell for the camp prisoners, they were having just these few minutes to have a short walk and within this time Władysław Lewkowicz did have his confession, which was for him really important and a great support.

Another prisoner, who also met Father Kolbe because of the same motivation was Wilhelm Żelazny, brought here from Silesia. And his beginning in the camp was really good, he became a functionary prisoner, his position was really safe and one day he was punished for not doing his duties the way he was expected. He again, was in a panic that he may be even murdered as he witnessed so many cases of brutal tortures of the prisoners. He became more and more depressed. Another prisoner noticed that, from very cheerful optimistic man he was turning into someone who is not too eager to talk to anybody, so advised him, “Maybe you can talk to someone, who can support you a little bit.” Again, pointed him to Father Kolbe, who was around these prisoners. Father Kolbe gave Wilhelm Żelazny a rosary, something which he brought through Pawiak, through the interrogation and then also he managed to hide during the admission in the camp. There rosary was damaged a little bit, but still could be used for praying. Wilhelm Żelazny took this rosary and he started to pray. When he was better and he wanted to return it to the owner, he was told that Father Kolbe died. He kept this rosary with him through his whole stay in the camp, he also managed to keep it during the evacuation and after the war, he came here to the town and gave this rosary to the local parish, where the rosary is kept as a very special relic.

Another form of meeting is remembered by Mieczysław Kościelniak, an artist, painter. He was in a group of prisoners, who were having very again, informal meetings, and one of the people who was speaking during this meeting was someone he didn’t know, but he was really moved by the way he was talking about the way to survive the camp, how to best try to save energy, power, even health, to stay as long as possible. Then he retuned to the religious elements of the way to survive, to pray, to believe, and these words were striking him, he was really moved and also he was moved with his contact, especially with young prisoners, who were taking the brutality in the camp in a very bad way.

I mentioned before Tadeusz Pietrzykowski, also had another two meetings with Father Kolbe. After he returned to the camp, from this informal fight in Babitz, a fellow prisoner asked him, “Did you know who was the one you saved?” Tadeusz Pietrzykowski honestly said that he had no idea. He said, “That’s the very famous Franciscan one who was in Japan, and he is a publisher, maybe you want to talk to him?” Pietrzykowski said that he wants this meeting. So, when they met, Father Kolbe again referred to violence, to being part of any type of beating in the camp, that they should not do this, they should save energy, that they should look for other ways to fight within the camp life, with the brutality. Pietrzykowski was not happy at all with these words, he was the person who was fighting, punching successfully the functionaries and the other prisoners. Father Kolbe noticed that he doesn’t like his words, so he switched the conversation into memories from Japan. He said, “When I was in Japan, they’re having different ways of fighting,” and they started to talk about Japan, which for Pietrzykowski at this moment was very interesting. Then another occasion for a meeting was bread, which Pietrzykowski managed to save and decided to give to father Kolbe. He brought him the portion of bread, but then he learnt that another prisoner stole this bread form him. So, he started to approach the thief and father Kolbe again stopped him saying, “Maybe he was more hungry than I am, so let him go.” Pietrzykowski, knowing Father Kolbe’s attitude to violence, to any type of force, he just stepped back.

How did the news about the death of Father Kolbe reach his, on one hand family, and the monastery?

The Franciscans learnt about the death of their guardian from the letter of father Bartosik. He was still in the camp, and he wrote a letter and in a very special way the prisoners learnt, he informed the friars about the death. Of course, he could not write directly that he was murdered, but in a kind of code he sent this information. Then the friars sent the message to the family. The mother of Father Kolbe, Marianna Kolbe, was at that time living in Kraków. She received the letter form her son, at the end of June 1941. Father Kolbe informed his mother that he is in the camp and he’s not excepting correspondence because he’s not sure how long he’s going to stay in the camp. So, learning from the friers about the death, she was really in a great sorrow. She informed Franciszek Kolbe, the elder brother, who was at that time in Zduńska Wola. Franciszek Kolbe was a member of the resistance movement. Two years after death of his brother, he was arrested. He was also deported to the Auschwitz camp. In his case, the camp photograph did survive. A year later, in 1944, he was sent to another camp in Germany to Buchenwald, from this camp to Mittelbau-Dora and in January 1945 he died in Mittelbau, so the two Kolbe brothers died in concentration camps. Maximilian died in Auschwitz and his elder brother Franciszek died in Mittelbau.

The last person we should also talk about is the man who was saved by Father Kolbe and it was Franciszek Gajowniczek. What happened to him?

Franciszek Gajowniczek, the one who was begging for mercy, and who was saved by Father Kolbe, survived the camp. From Auschwitz he was sent to Sachsenhausen, and then was liberated there. He was a soldier of the Polish army, he was fighting during the campaign in September 1939, then arrested and sent to Auschwitz in the first months of the camp’s existence. In his testimony he admitted that he didn’t hear about father Kolbe before his deportation to Auschwitz, and also in the camp, when he was told by the other prisoners who Father Kolbe was, again that was for him something that he learned, he didn’t have an occasion to talk to Father Kolbe in the camp or to be around him, as I mentioned, he had some circles, some people who were approaching him from time to time and they were having some conversations, he was not among these people. He learnt much more after the war.

During the famous roll call when he was begging for mercy, he was talking about his children. He was the father of two boys, Bogdan and Janusz, they were both teenagers. One of the sons, the elder, he was fighting during the Warsaw uprising in 1944 and then in January 1945 they were both in Rawa Mazowiecka. At that time the red army was approaching this town and there was some artillery action in some parts of the town, and unfortunately two of them were around the territory when the artillery was attacking, and they both died. The mother who was in a different place came to look for the sons and she found the bodies of her two sons among all the victims of this action. So, when Franciszek Gajowniczek returned home, he found only his wife.

They moved to Brzeg, a city in the Silesia region and they lived there for another several decades. Within this time Franciszek Gajowniczek started to be more active as a survivor of the concentration camp and also as a person who was saved this very exceptional friar, monk. He was present during the ceremony in the Vatican in 1971, when father Kolbe was beatified, and also later on when Father Kolbe was canonized and was declared a Saint martyr, he was also there as a witness as the person who survived, during this ceremony. And then for many occasions he was invited by the Franciscans and also by many other institutions and people to bare witness, to talk about his experiences as a survivor and also about this exceptional person he happened to be saved by.